The EU’s Data Protection Board (EDPB) has told large online platforms they should not offer users a binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising.
In October last year, the social media giant said it would be possible to pay Meta to stop Instagram or Facebook feeds of personalized ads and prevent it from using personal data for marketing for users in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland. Meta then announced a subscription model of €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android for users who did not want their personal data used for targeted advertising.
At the time, Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at noyb, said: “EU law requires that consent is the genuine free will of the user. Contrary to this law, Meta charges a ‘privacy fee’ of up to €250 per year if anyone dares to exercise their fundamental right to data protection.”
Yeah I’m the most neurotic adblocker I know but I have zero issue with how they’re dealing with it. I didn’t even have an issue with before the option to pay to remove ads - I just didn’t use their app then, same as with YouTube.
I like free stuff just as much as the other guy but no amount of mental gymnastics helps me understand the logic that these big companies should be handing out these services for free.
The problem is precisely how they’re dealing with it. They’re being forced by the EU to give people a choice, so they decided to make one of the choices obscenely expensive to force people to make the other choice.
They’re charging 12.99 a month for ad free. They have 3.5 billion users. So they’re saying that to provide their service for free to all their users would cost them 4.5 trillion. Per. Month.
Shower of greedy cunts, fuckin deserve everything they get
They’re free to ask for whatever price and you’re free to not pay. I genuinely don’t see the issue here. This is Instagram we’re talking about - not food and water.
It seems like people belive that using Meta services is a right or something. I chose not to, and it only improved my life.
It’s surprisingly similar to addicts trying to justify their habit.